The Fascinating Life of Honeybees: From Queen to Worker and the Sweet Gift of Honey

Of all insects, the honeybee seems to be one of the most fascinating.

Bees spend most of their lives inside the hive, living in thriving, highly organized social cooperation. At the head of this society stands a single queen bee, while all the others are workers. Although the workers are also female, their ovaries are undeveloped, so they cannot lay eggs or reproduce. The queen differs from the worker in her body length, reaching up to 17 millimeters, compared to the worker’s 13 millimeters.

The Queen: Mother of the Hive

The queen is constantly occupied with laying eggs, day and night. She moves across the honeycomb cells, accompanied by a group of workers who feed and attend to her. Once she finds an empty cell, she lowers her head inside to inspect it. If the cell is suitable, she inserts her abdomen and lays a single elongated white egg, which sticks to the base of the cell. On average, the queen lays between 1,000–2,000 eggs each day.

From Egg to Larva

Every honeybee begins its life as a tiny grayish-white egg, about 1.5 millimeters long. After three days, the egg hatches into a worm-like creature known as the larva. The worker bees feed the larva continuously, sometimes providing up to a thousand meals within 24 hours (!), allowing it to grow rapidly.

Initially, all larvae are fed a special substance called royal jelly — a creamy, protein-rich secretion produced in the salivary glands of young worker bees. After two to three days, larvae destined to become workers are switched to a diet of honey and pollen, called bee bread, while future queens continue to be fed exclusively with royal jelly.

After several days, the workers seal the larva’s cell with wax. A queen larva’s cell is sealed after five days, a worker’s after six days, and a drone’s (male bee) after seven days.

Inside the cell, the larva spins a cocoon of fine silk threads and becomes a pupa. This stage lasts eight days for a queen, twelve days for a worker, and fourteen days for a drone. During this period, the pupa transforms into an adult bee. When the time is complete, the young bee chews its way out of the cocoon and emerges into the world.

The Queen’s Struggle

When a new queen emerges, her first task is to eliminate rivals. She attacks the old queen and any other young queens that have hatched alongside her, stinging and driving them away from the hive. In these battles, defeated queens are forced to leave the hive, sometimes accompanied by a group of worker bees.

The queen’s sole role throughout her life is egg-laying. Workers remain constantly at her side to feed and care for her.

The Worker Bee

Shortly after emerging, the worker begins her demanding life of labor. She works tirelessly until her final day. Her first task is cleaning empty cells in preparation for new eggs. By the time she is three days old, she starts feeding larvae and pupae still developing in their cells.

Some young workers guard the hive entrance against intruders, while others stand at the entrance and fan their wings rapidly to ventilate the hive.

Only after two to three weeks do young workers begin foraging for nectar. They start with short orientation flights near the hive, learning the surroundings, and soon begin collecting nectar and pollen. Most of their remaining days are spent gathering food.

The Dance of the Nectar

Bees have a special way of communicating the location of food sources. After discovering an area rich in nectar-bearing flowers, a bee performs a dance upon returning to the hive.

• If the nectar source is close by, the bee performs a circular dance.

• If the source is farther away, she performs a waggle dance in the shape of a figure-eight, shaking her abdomen.

The movements indicate both the direction and distance of the food source with remarkable precision.

In addition to nectar and pollen, bees collect a resin-like substance called propolis, found on the buds of certain trees. Worker bees use this sticky substance to repair and strengthen the hive walls.

During summer, worker bees labor almost all day long collecting food. Workers born in times of abundance usually live only about two months, dying of exhaustion. However, those born in autumn often survive through winter, living for 8–9 months.

The Sting

The worker bee’s weapon is her sting, which she uses to defend the hive against intruders. The sting, about one-third the length of her body, has barbed edges that make it impossible to withdraw once embedded in soft flesh. As a result, a worker bee that stings a person or large animal dies shortly afterward, as part of her abdomen is torn away.

Bees sting only in rare cases — when they are attacked or when the hive is threatened. Against insects with hard exoskeletons, however, a bee can sting and safely withdraw her sting. The venom is highly potent, instantly killing flies, small insects, and some vertebrates.

Unlike workers, the queen’s sting is smooth, enabling her to sting multiple times without harm to herself.

The Gift of Honey

While bees themselves are not kosher for consumption, their honey is considered pure and permitted to eat. Beyond being a sweet, nutritious natural sugar, honey has numerous medicinal properties:

• Strengthens the heart muscle.

• Boosts red blood cell levels.

• Helps treat urinary tract and kidney inflammations.

• Acts as a salve for wounds and burns.

Honey contains natural antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal agents, making it an effective substitute for antibiotics, whose effectiveness has been reduced by overuse. Studies also show that populations relying on honey rather than refined sugar have very low rates of diabetes.

Honey is the only natural food that never spoils. Some years ago, jars of honey were discovered inside Egyptian pyramids — still perfectly preserved after about 3,000 years!

Just as God blessed honey with eternal sweetness, may we all be blessed with a sweet, fruitful year filled with goodness that lasts for many years to come.